10 posts tagged “culture”

As of today, it appears I am administering the Chinese group on Vox. Sky, who founded the group, has departed from Vox and I am grateful for being left in charge. Thank you, Sky, for this and for instigating the group.
   For those of you who wish to post about China or the Chinese, from Chinese freedom to Chinese pride, please consider joining the group and begin sending your thoughts there.
   I’ve already begun improving a few things about the look and feel (e.g. adding a picture of Dr Sun Yat-sen as the group icon), and welcome others’ contributions.

 
My friend and distant relative May Yan contributed to this new book on Chinese cuisine, called Eating Stories: a Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck. It’s important for those of us in the diaspora not to lose some of our good eating habits and knowledge about traditional cuisine, and to be able to pass them on to the next generation. The way May described this book, it’s the sort of thing that I would regard as vital for my own well-being!

If you could easily choose to live in another country without all the red tape and legal stuff, which one would you select and why? 
Submitted by Matthew 25.

Sweden has always held a fascination for me. It could be a good place to retreat to during the winter here. Culturally, it’s similar enough to New Zealand (e.g. the concept of jantelagen) for me to be understood.

Did you shop for great deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Or did you observe Buy Nothing Day?

Why would there be special deals on Friday the 13th? For Jason masks maybe? And what is Cyber Monday?
   It’s OK: I do know what the original question is about, but there’ll be non-Americans on Vox asking the above.

Maybe I have some obsessive–compulsive, because I have been trying to find one missing line from my recollection of the Tip-Top Trumpet jingle for decades and even wrote to the company about it (no one replied or acknowledged my email). Finally, someone has a better memory than I do and after six years, I have found it on the internet.
   There was a longer version, which is where the ellipses come in, but now, we have (the missing line now in italics):

I once bought an ice-cream for a girl called Fay
But Roger the bully stole them both away.
…
One day, you’ll be a big boy.

But now that I’ve grown up,
Look what I’ve got!
It’s a Trumpet, Fay,
And it’s made by Tip-Top!

The smoothest ice-cream that money can buy.
It’s got chocolate, and nuts, and flavours to try!
It’s a treat for the big boys, I told her,
And then, and then,
Oh, Lordy! It’s Roger again!

One day, Roger Finch! One day!

By 2009 or 2010, we’ll see some amazing, swish, but ultimately home-made and favour-using advertising campaigns for small businesses through YouTube. These aren’t corporations targeting the web, nor are they adaptations of ads made for other media. We’ll all marvel, and we’ll consider these campaigns the turning points; how they use the sort of special effects we have seen on The Lord of the Rings and the like. They might even come from unexpected countries, probably nations with strong ad heritages like Brazil, or innovative places like India. The commentators in the MSM will probably condemn it, and the global online audience will lap it all up.

It’s so hard finding New Zealand-owned juice at supermarkets. Just back from Pak ’n’ Save and New World in my area, and mostly it was Citrus Tree and Keri (French and American). Fresh-up, Just Juice: also French. New World at least had a few Pam’s three-litre juices left, which I paid $4·85 or thereabouts for—and Pam’s was, once, the poverty brand. Where are the Kiwi juices that are also good value for money?
   Speaking of which, I now buy Hong Kong-made blank CDs and DVDs that appear to be marketed by a domestic firm, and they come in cheaper than the regular brands at Corporate Consumables. What the brand is, I can’t recall. But I will with a few more repeated purchases. (OK, just checked: they’re called Zone. And they are ink-jet safe, and I haven’t experienced any difference in performance between them and the Japanese and Korean branded stuff I normally buy.)
   Interestingly, the checkout girls are getting more multicultural. I had an Indonesian and an Iraqi serve me. The latter joked about being from Baghdad. I said, ‘Must have been a nice looking city when you were a kid.’ Her reply: ‘Not any more.’ But it sure is nice to be an émigrée, I’ll bet, away from the crap going on back home. I feel the same way (but as an émigré).
   Also bought Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War DVD, going for $15. Can’t wait to see what this Kiwi writer–director cooked up. I remember talking to his Dad about it when he was still writing it.

I had been discussing the tall poppy syndrome with a few Vox friends in a private post (it’s about giving fair play to those of us who are somewhat antiestablishment). Interesting, then, to see a counterpoint from an American newspaper, which celebrates it:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/26/opinion/edbowring.php

   The argument makes some sense, in that we don’t want to abandon our notions of fairness and equality. However, I can’t see why we don’t celebrate accomplishments and give the little guy a go. Doing both is what made America great, and I think we can strike the happy medium. The trick is to sustain it.
   The comparison with Scandinavia is valid: they have a concept called jantelagen which, when it was first explained to me, bore very, very similar hallmarks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law

I wasn’t too surprised to hear of Anna Nicole Smith’s passing today. Chinese families always have stories about folks who do not deserve the money they have, due to some sin committed earlier. Oftentimes, these tragedies are marked by the loss of a son, and, if the person has still held on to their financial wealth, their own early demise or serious illness. In less regular cases, it involves a woman who has fought for her late husband’s wealth against a son. The usual playbook that the superstition follows was played out to the letter in Ms Smith’s case.

Since it’s G'day USA fortnight there in the US, and Alexander Downer this morning pledged Australians’ true-blue, united support for the War on Terror on Fox & Friends, I thought our American friends might be interested in this little item on Australian culture:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Life-for-Sale_W0QQitemZ110078904033QQihZ001QQcategoryZ324QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This chap is selling his life, and the new person will need to take on his persona, debts and even eight girls he has been flirting with. He’s not killing himself: he’s simply desirous to transfer his persona on to someone else. He becomes another person with another identity after the new buyer takes over.